'Help, Thanks, Wow' gets to the heart of the power of prayer

By Jim Higgins of the Journal Sentinel

Published on: 12/28/2012

Anne Lamott, whose Christianity is permeated by the street-wise spirituality of the 12-step programs, has much in common with the publican in Luke's parable, whose simple prayer is "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Luke doesn't record how much of a sense of humor the publican had, but Lamott brings her hard-earned wit to this concise book about the ways that need, gratitude and awe drive prayer.

Even nonbelievers recognize those impulses when we are in dire straits, or deeply grateful, or experiencing a reality much bigger than we can fathom.

"Sometimes the first time we pray, we cry out in the deepest desperation, 'God help me.' This is a great prayer, as we are then at our absolutely most degraded and isolated, which means we are nice and juicy with the consequences of our best thinking and are thus possibly teachable."

"My belief is that when you're telling the truth, you're close to God," Lamott writes, making it clear she would rather sit next to the person who declares to God, "I don't like You at all right now, and I recoil from most people who believe in You" than any TV preacher.

"Most good, honest prayers" remind Lamott that she is not in charge, can't fix anything and is opening herself to "being helped by something, some force, some friends, some something."

From the cry for help she moves to prayers of thanksgiving: "most of the time for me gratitude is a rush of relief that I dodged a bullet . . . " If we are lucky, Lamott writes, gratitude becomes a habit, and frequently "makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides." But she cautions, citing a Jesuit she admires, that God's idea of a good time is more about serving food at the soup kitchen or calling a meth-head cousin to check in with him than "waving your arms in praise on Christian TV shows."

"Wow is about having one's mind blown by the mesmerizing or the miraculous: the veins in a leaf, birdsong, volcanoes." As a "tiny little control freak," Lamott admits she wants to understand, organize and control the power of Wow, but can't: "I can only feel and acknowledge that it is here once again. Wow."